The American Soybean Association (ASA) expressed support for the "Fuels Security Act of 2005" introduced today in the United States House of Representatives by Stephanie Herseth (D-SD), Tom Osborne (R-NE), Collin Peterson (D-MN), and Steve King (R-IA). The legislation would establish a Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) growing to 8 billion gallons by 2012. This legislation is identical to legislation introduced in the Senate (S. 650) on March 17.

"This landmark legislation would increase our nation’s energy independence, protect air and water quality, provide increased flexibility for refiners and stimulate rural economies through the increased production of domestic, renewable fuels," said ASA President Neal Bredehoeft. "Increased use of renewable fuels will help support better prices paid to farmers."

The ethanol and biodiesel industries have undergone unprecedented growth over the past several years. In fact, the U.S. currently has the capacity to produce more than 3.7 billion gallons of ethanol and biodiesel, and plants under construction will add an additional 700 million gallons of capacity by the end of the year. Most of this growth has been in farmer-owned plants, which taken as a whole, now represent the single largest producer in the country.

"Clearly, the renewable fuels industry is poised to make a significant contribution to this nation’s energy supply," Bredehoeft said. "With rising crude oil and gasoline prices hurting consumers, and record petroleum imports worsening our trade imbalance and slowing economic growth, we need to be maximizing the production and use of domestic renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel."

The original cosponsors of the bill are Marion Berry (D-AR), Sam Graves (R-MO), Mark Kennedy (R-MN), Betty McCollum (D-MN), John McHugh (R-NY), Tom Osborne (R-NE), Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) and Ike Skelton (D-MO).

The production and use of 8 billion gallons of ethanol, biodiesel and other renewable fuels by 2012 will displace over 2 billion barrels of crude oil and reduce the outflow of dollars largely to foreign oil producers by $64.1 billion between 2005 and 2012. As a result of the RFS, America’s dependence on imported oil will be reduced from an estimated 68 percent to 62 percent.

The renewable fuels sector will spend an estimated $6 billion to build 4.3 billion gallons of new ethanol and biodiesel capacity between 2005 and 2012, and nearly $70 billion on goods and services required to produce 8 billion gallons of ethanol and biodiesel by 2012. Purchases of corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, corn stover and wheat straw alone will total $43 billion between 2005 and 2012.

The combination of this direct spending and the indirect impacts of those dollars circulating throughout the economy will add nearly $200 billion to the Gross Domestic Product between 2005 and 2012, while generating an additional $43 billion of household income for all Americans between 2005 and 2012, and could create as many as 234,840 new jobs in all sectors of the economy by 2012.

"Enacting a RFS that would provide a market of 8 billion gallons by 2012 demonstrates a firm commitment to reducing this nation’s foreign oil dependence while providing a significant impact to the American economy," Bredehoeft said. "The RFS is a vital and necessary component of any energy policy designed to reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign sources of petroleum. The 26,000 producer-members of the ASA urge passage of this important legislation as quickly as possible."